« Futures markets in everything, NOT | Main | When to put on a gas tax »
Caught my eye
1. What is wrong with business bestsellers. This is from a new quarterly, AFFDoubleThink.
2. Here is Virginia Postrel's new articles archive. Here is her piece on child labor.
3. The current state of French wine.
4. Greg Mankiw's advice for aspiring economists.
5. Top grossing films of all time, adjusting for inflation.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on May 24, 2006 at 03:50 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
Hmm. what bothers me about business best sellers is that most of them just take one idea and repeat it until it fills a book. Is there any (modern best seller-like) business book that has more ideas than a single post on Marginal Revolution?
Posted by: DK at May 24, 2006 4:08:43 PM
An even more interesting stat on the movies would be to divide the box office by the average ticket price to get some guesstimate at the actual total audience; I expect GWTW's dominance would be even more pronounced as it got its box-office in a day when movie tix cost something like a quarter...
Also, it was interesting that of movies made in the past 20 years, only _Titanic_ made it into the top 10, and you have to go quite a ways down the list to find anything after 2000; Shrek 2 of all things!
Posted by: Foobarista at May 24, 2006 4:14:37 PM
Interesting list of movie grosses.
But there's probably a bias towards older films that have been re-released like "Star Wars" was; I recall seeing it in many summer re-releases, back in the days before the VCR.
It would be nice to have a table showing only grosses from one year after release, say.
Posted by: Anderson at May 24, 2006 4:14:57 PM
Isn't it true that Gone with the Wind was released in first-run theaters 30+ times since 1939, which is why it's revenues are so high? I think the Star Wars presence in the top 10 is really the biggest accomplishment. It's much more difficult now for a film to be as popular as it was in the 1960s and earlier. During the Depression, ticket sales were a few orders of magnitudes more, despite the smaller population - I'm assuming because of the absence of television and other activities. By the late 1970s, though, it's a much stiffer competition at the box office.
Posted by: scott cunningham at May 24, 2006 5:02:44 PM
Those AFF guys have a serious comment-spam problem!
Posted by: Uncle Lumpy at May 24, 2006 5:04:33 PM
Glad to see Scott confirms my impression about re-releases.
Note that (1) "Star Wars" was re-released many times itself; and (2) 1977 preceded the wide availability of HBO and VCRs.
Posted by: Anderson at May 24, 2006 5:49:32 PM
Anderson - yes, I agree with you now that I've read your two comments. I completely forgot that Star Wars had been re-released. Peter Biskind talks about the distribution strategy of The Exorcist and Star Wars, and I want to say that the Exorcist did not make a ton of money in its first run - although it did do incredibly well more recently when Friedkin's director's cut was rereleased. But you're right - that even Star Wars benefited from those multiple releases. In the old days, I think there were second and even third-run markets for these pictures, and then on top of that studios would routinely re-release the films, as they did with Star Wars. Now, re-releases are only done in the name of releasing a director's cut, and I imagine the expanding DVD market is going to eliminate that too. George Lucas first released an updated trilogy with new scenes (the one where Han shoots Greedo in self-defense), and now I've read he's going to release the original trilogy (the one where Han shoots first). I don't think that these DVD sales are captured by these gross revenues, because these are all box office revenues, so I suspect there won't be much movement in that top ten from here on out.
Posted by: scott cunningham at May 24, 2006 6:34:59 PM
The worst thing about _Rich Dad, Poor Dad_ was the implication that doing useful work for a living is for chumps.
_Slack : Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency_ by Tom Demarco is a fairly low-redundancy business book.
Posted by: Nancy Lebovitz at May 25, 2006 6:22:53 AM
Thanks for the Biskind ref, Scott; I need to take a look at that book.
Posted by: Anderson at May 25, 2006 11:54:58 AM
Unfortunately skipped the business/self-improv book I've hahd recommended to me the most, Seven Habits.
I'm not sure I'd include Moneyball with the other books the author mentioned, it seems more a social-sciencish book, along the lines of something by gladweel or surouwekzi.
Posted by: jor at May 26, 2006 2:39:25 AM
If Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln,
William Jennings Bryan, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, and Daniel Webster, are representative
of “a peculiarly American nihilism,” perhaps
Peter J. Hansen is right about Dale Carnegie’s
How to Win Friends and Influence People.
However, if I read Carnegie correctly,
he is not saying we should be friends with
everyone.
Rather I think he is saying that
when we are with our friends, neighbors,
wives/husbands, children, parents, other
relatives, and yes customers and other
people we work with – with all these people,
we will and they will be happier and more
cooperative if we follow his principles.
I first read the book about 45 years ago.
I can’t prove that following his principles has
made me a paragon of human relations (I’m not
all that good at it), but I do know this:
Whenever I violate his principles, things go worse
– particularly when I violate them when I am with my wife.
Carnegie has been well worth studying and
practicing for peace at home. Everything else he
has helped me with is a welcome bonus.
Posted by: ShakespearesFool@hotmail.com at May 26, 2006 4:43:42 PM
smeris fisting thuis ^^^ meisje dronken vredig ^^^ grossi seni roulotte ^^^ bionde strip in anticamera ^^^ chaude vampire ^^^ la plus chaude seduisante vierge ^^^ chaud fils photo ^^^ chaud papa dix huit ^^^ bollente lesbiche gruppo ^^^ sentimento segretaria spogliarello ^^^ sympatisk servitris alska ^^^ stilig skolflicka ejakulation ^^^ farcical segretaria pompino ^^^ bashful giovane amore ^^^ chier transsexuelles ^^^ bukkake lecher chatte ^^^ sextomia naida huora ^^^ masturbating sukupuoli seuraa ^^^ heldig 3kant ^^^ pa kjokkenet gruppesex ^^^ fin enorm ^^^ uerfaren svensk ^^^ koutos asiatis praxi ^^^ drosero asiatis agapi ^^^ mama mouille ^^^ le plus chaud maman roue ^^^ tolmiros sexi ^^^ tolmiros roufixia ^^^
Posted by: levan at Sep 8, 2006 5:07:23 AM
EVE ISK
EVE Online ISK
Buy EVE ISK
Cheap EVE Online ISK
Posted by: aion kina at Mar 20, 2009 4:37:43 AM
